A Chronology of Skateboard Graffiti Art

A Chronology of Skateboard Graffiti Art
by Damian Gomez
Nov. 20, 2019

     The emergence of graffiti influenced art in the skateboard industry occurred during the early 1970's and graffiti has continued to influence skateboard art to this day. Many skate brands have, at one time or another, adopted and made use of graffiti art in an attempt to sell more skateboards. Graffiti subculture and the skateboard industry allied early in their nascent forms and have flourished together over the last several decades. Although the history of graffiti influenced skateboard art has been lightly discussed in recent online articles, the chronological timeline is vague at best. What's most interesting is that much of the early graffiti influenced skateboard art appears to be a derivative of genuine graffiti art. The exact time period in which genuine graffiti and graffiti artists began to have a direct influence on the skateboard industry has yet to be examined.

     Modern day skateboards are admired for both their functionality and aesthetics. The specific shape, size and concave of a skateboard deck is of utmost importance. However, the graphic that is printed onto the deck helps to make it more aesthetically appealing to consumers. Skateboard brands hire artists to design graphics which are then either screen printed or applied to the skateboard deck via a sublimation process. Skateboard graphics are specifically designed to target the various demographics that exist within skateboard subculture. Skateboard brands carefully monitor the ever-changing trends within skateboard subculture and adapt accordingly. By releasing a new series of decks every few months or so, skateboard brands are able to maintain artistic flexibility and validity. As a former skateboard sales rep and owner/operator of a retail skateboard store, I can attest to the fact that skateboard sales rely heavily on graphics. It's not uncommon for a consumer to purchase a particular skateboard deck with their decision being based solely on the artwork and nothing more.

     Those who find themselves interested in learning more about the history of skateboard graffiti art will quickly find themselves reading one of the few online articles in which the author is all too ready to attribute praise and credit to American artist and photographer Craig Stecyk. A Southern California native and graduate of fine arts school, Stecyk is most recognized for his photographic and written documentation of surf/skate subculture during the 1970s and 80s. Stecyk's graffiti art appears in many of his photographs from that era. Much like a director of a play uses theatrical props on stage, it looks as if Stecyk used his graffiti art to visually enhance his photographs. It's not clear as to whether Stecyk was shooting at locations that he had previously spray painted or if he was spray painting locations specifically for photo-shoots.

Nathan Pratt                                      photo: Craig Stecyk

     In 1973, Jeff Ho opened Zephyr Surfboard Productions in Santa Monica and employed Stecyk to design graphics. Ho also began manufacturing skateboards and would later organize both a surf and skateboard team, the Z-Boys. In an online article, author of the book Gnarly Skateboarders, Steve Cave writes “Stecyk pulled his graphics from local graffiti and made Zephyr surfboards reflect the area where they were made.” As already mentioned above, the area in which Zephyr surfboards and skateboards were being manufactured was Santa Monica. The specific area within Santa Monica that was being reflected in Stecyk's art was Pacific Ocean Park. Pacific Ocean Park, at one point in time, was a thriving nautical-themed amusement park that was situated on a pier in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica. The amusement park closed down in October of 1967 and what was left was twenty-acres of abandoned ruins which soon became the local hangout for Stecyk and the Z-Boys. Pacific Ocean Park or POP, as it was referred to by the locals, became the backdrop for Stecyk's photography.

graffiti in Pacific Ocean Park

Santa Monica is also home to a variety of Mexican-American gangs with the most prominent of these gangs residing in the Pico neighborhood. In fact, the Pico neighborhood is positioned diagonally across from Pacific Ocean Park. Considering the close proximity of these two areas, it's easy for one to infer that Stecyk was indeed exposed to Mexican-American gang subculture. Journalist and writer Joe Donelly writes in his recent publication titled L.A. Man, “Taking cues from the local gangs, Stecyk began tagging his own tribe’s turf with graffiti, creating icons and images that would find their way onto the Zephyr Shop surfboards and skateboards and later across the country and eventually into skate culture’s lore.” Stecyk's hand lettering style in particular is clearly a derivative of a traditional cholo lettering style that is most often associated with Mexican-American gang subculture.

Craig Stecyk

     By 1976, Stecyk's graffiti influenced aesthetic had been adopted by Wes Humpton and Jim Muir, owners and operators of Dogtown Skates. Wes Humpton was highly influenced by Stecyk and his graffiti influenced art. In an online interview, Humpton credits Stecyk with being one of the most influential individuals in the skateboard industry, “...first would be Craig Stecyk who was a big inspiration to me and so many others for his art, writing and photography that made so many want to make art & go surf and skate.” It was Stecyk's Dogtown Cross that would become one of the most iconic graphic designs associated with Dogtown Skates. First published in Skateboarder Magazine (c. 1976), the Dogtown Cross was originally one of Stecyk's guerrilla art projects that was carried out in Pacific Ocean Park. It was in this abandoned and dilapidated area of Santa Monica that Stecyk had spray painted a three-dimensional cross with the words “Dog” and “Town” intersecting within the cross. The Dogtown Cross appears to be Stecyk's interpretation of what traditional Mexican-American gang members call a placa or plaqueazo. A placa is a type of roll call in which a gang member will write or spray paint his associate's names on a wall in cholo style lettering. Placas will often include the name of the neighborhood or local gang that has claimed territory. The history of the placa can be traced all the back to the 1940's when Mexican-American gang subculture began to take shape in the American Southwest. Many variations of the Dogtown Cross design were produced by Dogtown Skates in the following years.

Dogtown Cross

     Stacy Peralta, original member of the Zephyr skateboard team and co-owner of the Powell Peralta skateboard brand, took notice to Stecyk's artistic skills and offered Stecyk a position as creative director at Powell Peralta in 1980. Powell Peralta is a skateboard brand located in Santa Barbara which is about an hour North of Santa Monica and Venice. Prior to Stecyk's arrival, the graphics that were being designed at Powell Peralta consisted mostly of skulls and daggers. Stecyk's graffiti influenced aesthetic was eventually injected into the design process and by 1983, Powell Peralta released the Rat Bones deck. According to Stacy Peralta, the Rat Bones graphic was originally called the Vato Rat. A lightly sketched rat head with elongated ears and nose sitting atop a pair of crossbones, the Vato Rat became one of the most iconic and recognized graphic designs in skateboard subculture. For those unfamiliar with the Powell Peralta Rat Bones graphic, it could be described as a type of multi-print design with the Vato Rat graphic being repeated three times down the center of the deck. Each Vato Rat is accented with an outline color and sequence of spray painted lines that descend diagonally from from the center of the deck. The text on the nose of the deck reads “Bones” with the brand name “Powell Peralta” positioned above the bottom truck hole pattern. Stecyk produced a unique hand letter style for the text portion of the Rat Bones graphic which appears to be a hybrid cholo style lettering. In an online interview with Jack Erwin, Peralta sheds light on the origin of the Vato Rat graphic, "The graphic was done by Stecyk. He did that ages ago, probably in the early to mid '70s. That was a Dogtown graphic, and I don't mean Dogtown skateboards, that was a graphic out of Dogtown, out of Santa Monica, out of Venice. I remember liking that, I remember growing up with that graphic and liking it so much that I encouraged Craig to bring it back for our products.” Stecyk's graffiti influenced art would be perpetuated throughout the 1980s by the Powell Peralta brand and would eventually become immortalized in skateboard history.

Powell Peralta
Rat Bones

     I'll argue at this point that although Stecyk is a legendary artist that has attained an almost deity like status within the skateboard and surf industry, Stecyk was not a genuine or prolific graffiti artist. The graffiti that Stecyk was producing during the early 70's was restricted to a very small area of Santa Monica called Pacific Ocean Park. It is my belief that Stecyk was initially emulating local gang graffiti for the purpose of visually enhancing his photographs. The hand lettering styles that Stecyk developed are clearly a derivative of the traditional cholo hand styles that were present in his local area. Upon doing further research, I also learned that the name Dogtown originally belongs to a Mexican-American gang from the Highland Park area of Los Angeles called Dog Town Rifa. Researchers at streetgangs.com have recognized the Dog Town Rifa gang as being “the oldest active gang neighborhood in all of Los Angeles County going back to a period from 1895 to 1900.” After analyzing old black and white authentic photographs of genuine Dog Town Rifa street graffiti, it strikingly apparent that Stecyk attempted to copy the gang's unique hand lettering style right down to the swastika that was being used in the gang's placas. Maybe this is all just coincidental or perhaps Stecyk had negotiated a sweet deal with the Dog Town Rifa gang in which he used their gang name to launch his career as a graphic designer.

Dog Town Rifa graffiti

     The 1980s was a prosperous time for the skateboard industry. Among the handful of skateboard brands that were doing well was Santa Cruz Skateboards. Sometime between September and December of 1986, Santa Cruz Skateboards released their second pro model for team rider Jeff Kendall. This particular deck is loosely called graffiti and was designed by artist Jim Phillips. The Kendall graffiti deck is of significance because of the graphic's direct reference to graffiti art. This vibrantly colored graphic consists of a brick wall backdrop, some mock tagging and the name Jeff Kendall in block letter form. There is even a hand that is gripping a can of spray paint! The Kendall graphic screams graffiti yet there is something very peculiar about it.

Jeff Kendall graffiti deck

     Jim Phillips was hired as the art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards in 1975. Far from being a city dwelling graffiti writer, Phillips resided in the mellow beach town of Santa Cruz and specialized in cartooning. Phillips was also heavily involved with the local surf scene and his art was featured in many surf magazines during the 1960s. When asked about his artistic influences in an online interview, Phillips responds “Let’s just say the greatest comic book and animation artists who ever lived.” Unlike Stecyk, Phillips didn't have the environmental influences that were present in Los Angeles. Phillips' rendition of a graffiti themed skateboard graphic is much different than that of Stecyk's in that it is brightly colored and less threatening. To the untrained eye, Phillips' graffiti graphic may come off as genuine but it is devoid of certain attributes and/or components that are associated with genuine graffiti art. In other words, Phillips' letter style lacks the characteristic arrows, flourishes and ligatures that are usually present in genuine graffiti style letter arrangements. Also, Phillips' block letters look highly polished and symmetrical which is indicative of someone who is skilled in the sign painting trade. In fact, one of Phillips' early artistic influences was a man by the name of Ralph Grey who was – yes, you've guessed it! A sign painter. “I was profoundly inspired by his work.”, Phillip says, “He was a gifted commercial artist and sign painter whose cartoon characters rode on delivery trucks all around town, and still do to this day.”

   

Jim Phillips

     I feel that it's glaringly apparent by now that Jim Phillips was and is not a genuine graffiti artist but rather an extremely talented individual who designed a one-off graffiti influenced graphic for Jeff Kendall and Santa Cruz Skateboards. It's not clear as to who or what was the inspiration behind Phillips' graffiti design but what is clear is that, much like Stecyk's graffiti influenced art, Phillips' graffiti influenced art is a derivative of genuine graffiti art. Among the multitude of graphics that were illustrated by Phillips during that time, the Kendall graffiti deck became one of the most iconic designs from that era of skateboarding. Phillips is still producing artwork for Santa Cruz Skateboards and is a highly respected artist within the skateboard and surf industry.

     The next graphic design of interest belongs to the Bryce Kanights B.K. pro model by Madrid Skateboards. The Kanights B.K. graphic, like the Kendall graffiti graphic, is set against a brick wall backdrop. The initials “B” and “K” are positioned on the wall and represented in large three-dimensional lettering. They are accented with a dual color outline, shine effects and random splatters of paint. The flavor is definitely that of graffiti but much like the Kendall graffiti graphic, Kanights' initials lack the characteristic arrows, flourishes, and ligatures that are typically found in genuine graffiti letter styles. One of the most salient features of this particular graphic is its rough and unpolished look. When compared to graphics that were being designed by other skateboard brands at that time, the Madrid B.K. artwork looks much less refined. The text underneath the illustrated initials reads “Madrid Skates” in what appears to be a botched and distorted cholo letter style.

Bryce Kanights B.K. pro model by Madrid Skateboards

     I'll admit that my first assumption was that Bryce Kanights himself designed the B.K. graphic but after doing some light research, I was shocked to learn that the B.K. graphic is a subject of scandal and controversy. While combing through online forums, I discovered submissions that were posted by a graffiti artist from San Francisco named Fury One who claims to be the artist that designed the B.K. graphic. On his Flickr account, Fury One writes “I designed the 'BK' for this Deck in 1985(?). It was stolen and used by Mr. Bryce Kanights for his first pro deck on the Madrid skateboard line, along with Images used for a Jimmy Z clothing shoot for Thrasher Magazine featuring Tommy Guerrero, ...Too bad BK chose to gank instead of open doors.” Fury One continues his explanation in a separate post, “I did the outline for the 'BK' lettering plus a couple of others... I think he might have used one of the other designs on his second or third deck also. He didnt keep his end of the deal. Didnt kick down the cash, gear, or original photos of tommy g. doing tricks on my production they used in jimmyz clothing ads. Im not bitter...”

     

Madrid ad for the B.K. pro model
March 1987

The artofskateboarding.com, a popular online website frequented by serious skateboard collectors, dates the release of the Madrid B.K. deck at 1987. However, while researching archived issues of Thrasher magazine, I discovered an article titled “Product Patrol” in which the Madrid B.K. deck is featured. This particular issue of Thrasher is from February of 1987 but considering the amount of time that it took design and manufacture a new line of skateboard decks in the 1980s, one can deduce that Madrid Skateboards must have been manufacturing the B.K. deck at least several months prior to it being featured in a February 1987 issue of Thrasher magazine. If so, this would push the B.K. release date back to late 1986 which coincides with Fury One's claim that he designed the B.K. graphic in 1985. This would all be speculative assumption had I not come across a photograph of a Madrid B.K. adhesive sticker that has a 1986 copyright printed in the bottom right hand corner. Considering that the Madrid brand was established in 1976, I think that it's safe to conclude that it is the B.K. graphic on the adhesive sticker that is being protected by the 1986 copyright, not the Madrid brand name. Upon further examination, I noticed a very small signature positioned immediately below the initial “K”. After zooming in further via a photo editing application, it became clear that the signature belonged to Fury One. Although difficult to discern, the signature begins with what looks like a backwards upper case “F” followed by the lower case letters “ury”. The last letter in the signature is undecipherable but likely to be “One” as in Fury One.

Madrid B.K. sticker

     I feel that it would be a disservice to my readers if I failed to mention that during the very same year that Madrid Skateboards began production on the Bryce Kanights B.K. pro model, a small skateboard brand called Shut Skateboards was being established in New York City. In fact, Shut Skateboards is the first skateboard brand to come out of New York City. Owners Rodney Smith and Bruno Musso hired local skateboarder and graffiti artist Eli Gesner to design graphics for their newly formed skate brand. The graphics that Gesner designed for Shut Skateboards were heavily rooted in graffiti art and his unique style reflects that. Despite being founded in 1986 and displaying genuine graffiti art on their skateboards, Shut Skateboards didn't begin production until approximately 1987-88. According to my research, the first Shut deck was released in 1988.

     Finally, I feel that it may be concluded that both Craig Stecyk and Jim Phillips were not genuine or prolific graffiti artists. Therefore, the graffiti art that was designed by Stecyk and Phillips are derivatives of genuine graffiti art. However, when one takes into account all of the available information pertaining to the Madrid B.K. graphic, the artwork seems to be genuine. Just to be clear, my assertion here is that the 1986 Madrid B.K. pro model is the first mass-produced skateboard graphic to exhibit genuine graffiti artwork. Fury One, the graffiti artist who designed the B.K. graphic, is still involved with graffiti art and has a Flickr account under the name aka Don San Pancho.

A nice collection of OG B.K. decks

Thrasher magazine
Feb. 1987

Fury's signature

Cholo Style: from El Paso to Los Angeles

Cholo Style: From El Paso to Los Angeles
by Damian Gomez
July 31, 2018
   

     The origins of modern American graffiti can be a contentious topic and it's been discussed in many books and documentary films. When asked about the origins of modern American graffiti, most folks will conjure up images of early 1970s New York City subway cars or if you happen to be in the know, you may hark back to an earlier time in 1960s Philadelphia. In other words, the history of modern American graffiti is typically associated with East Coast hip-hop subculture but what about West Coast cholo graffiti and its origin? 

Cholo graffiti predates East Coast hip-hop graffiti by at least two decades. Videos and photographs depicting Los Angeles cholo graffiti dating as far back as 1940 serve as archaeological evidence for those looking to place Los Angeles on a chronological time line alongside Philadelphia and New York. For those looking to ascertain the actual point of origin, things may be a little more complex as the history and origin of cholo graffiti is vague at best. Cholo graffiti is usually relegated to a lower status (artistically) and is placed into a different classification than that of East Coast hip-hop graffiti. Unlike the graffiti styles that developed later in Philadelphia and New York City, cholo graffiti hand-styles are unique in that they often resemble Olde English and Gothic typography. Christian P. Acker, author of the book “Flip the Script: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals & Typographers” writes “Gothic types have long been a staple of the visual landscape in Mexico and Mexican American culture...The very first printing press in the new world was established in Mexico City in 1534, imported from Seville, Spain and stocked full with the metal types of the day, mostly from Dutch type foundries” [Acker]. Recent trends in mainstream graffiti subculture appear to be borrowing more and more from what was once considered to be an outdated and substandard graffiti style (i.e cholo graffiti). With little information available regarding the history and origin of cholo graffiti, it is generally assumed that cholo graffiti originated in Los Angeles. However, my research suggests that the point of origin is not Los Angeles but rather the city of El Paso, Texas. That's right, during the late 19th century El Paso played a crucial role in the cultural diffusion of what is now recognized as cholo subculture and it's not that difficult for one to hypothesize that along with cholo subculture came its unique and inherent style of graffiti.     

     Situated in the hot and dry American Southwest on the North bank of the Rio Grande River, El Paso or El Paso del Norte was considered to be an important mountain pass by Spanish Franciscan friars. In its incipient stage, El Paso was a part of New Mexico and was economically bound with Santa Fe. It wasn't until the Texas Revolution (1835-1836) and the annexation of Texas (1845) did El Paso become a part of Texas. The Southern Pacific Railroad connected El Paso to Los Angeles in 1881. Authors of “How We Got Here: The Roads We Took To America” Donna S. Morales and John P. Schmal write “Located in the westernmost part of Texas at the point where the Rio Grande River intersects with the Texas-New Mexico state line, El Paso represented a strategic point between the American railroad network and the central Mexican heartland. In May 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached El Paso from Los Angeles. A month later, the Santa Fe Railroad arrived in El Paso from Santa Fe, New Mexico...” [Morales & Schmal]. By 1884 the Mexican Central Railway had linked Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez which is located directly across the river from El Paso. In the early 20th century, many Mexican immigrants were incentivized by the employment opportunities created by the ever expanding North American railroad system. This is especially true after Chinese immigrant workers were excluded from recruitment and training. Mexican or Mexican American railroad workers became known as “traqueros”, a word that derives from the Spanglish word “traque” for “track.” It was via this vast railroad system (and other accessible migration routes) that the early Mexican American gang subculture would eventually find its way from El Paso to Los Angeles. 

     Recognized experts on the subject of American street gangs, including anthropologist Arthur J. Rubel, suggest that the precursor to West Coast Mexican gangs and cholo subculture is what is referred to as the palomilla or “flock of doves.” The palomilla is described as groups or cliques of young Mexican men that were affiliated by age, a type of male cohorting. These cliques (or klikas) were first reported in South Texas in the early 1900s [Howell & Moore].  James C. Howell, author of the book,  “The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations” writes “Twenty to twenty-five gangs composed of three hundred to four hundred Mexican boys (80 percent of whom were under fifteen years of age) were reported in the Mexican section of El Paso in 1924” [Howell].  According to the National Gang Center, “These nascent gangs appear to have migrated along the trail that originated in Mexico and continued along a route through El Paso and Albuquerque, and onward to Los Angeles. The first Los Angeles gangs, called “boy gangs” clearly were patterned after the palomilla” [Howell & Moore]. 

early 1940's pachucos

By the early 1940s, this distinctive Mexican American gang subculture appears to have evolved into what is known as pachuco subculture. The pachuco or “zoot suiter” subculture became the vanguard of the Mexican American gang subculture. Pachucos were typically identified by their tailored suits or “zoot suits.” These suits were usually accessorized with felt hats, suspenders, and elongated key chains (la cadena) that sometimes dangled clear down to the ankles. Mexican Americans did not invent the “zoot suit” and they weren't the only people wearing them at that time. Many different American ethnic groups including African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Italian Americans wore “zoot suits.” The “zoot suit” came to be known as a counter-cultural fashion statement during that time. Mexican American Pachucos did, however, adopt the “zoot suit” style as a part of their ensemble. The origin of the word “pachuco” is uncertain, but one theory claims that “pachuco” was a word designated to young Mexican gang members (of low social status) who resided in El Paso. Another theory asserts that because El Paso was (and currently is) known as “Chuco Town” or “El Chuco”, Mexican immigrants migrating from El Paso to Los Angeles would say they were going “pa' El Chuco” (to Chuco Town), therefore they became known as “pachucos” and/or “pachucas.” In a newly released Youtube video, Susie Melendez sheds light on El Paso's long and rich pachuco history, “people migrated from Mexico over here to El Paso to work on the railroad...Once they hit California, they were always asked, ‘para dónde la llevas’ (where are you going?) And they would say Para  El Chuco. Pachuco” [Villa]. Some scholars have noted that the Mexican American pachucos indigenous to Los Angeles were quite different from those that came from El Paso, TX. Pachucos from the Los Angeles area were influenced by African American culture, “Mexican American zoot suiters native to Los Angeles spoke more jive; migrants from El Paso spoke pachuco caló with more of a Spanish-language and Spanish slang influence. This is also why when reporters asked Mexican citizens, after the Zoot Suit Riots, where pachucos had come from, many said they came from El Paso” [Licón].

  

     Pachuco subculture was also heavily influenced by Mexican comedic performer Germán Valdés who is known for his iconic character “Tin Tan.” Germán Valdés was born in Mexico City but after moving to Ciudad Juárez in 1931, he quickly became immersed in what historians now label as the “Mexican American generation” [Guzmán]. It would be there, in Ciudad Juárez, where Valdés would begin his career performing as a pachuco on the local radio (La XEJ de Juárez). Today, Germán Valdés is Mexico's most celebrated pachuco. 

Germán Valdés aka "Tin Tan"

      Young pachucos living in the American Southwest even developed their own argot or exclusive hybrid language called Caló or “pachuco Caló.” Pachuco Caló consisted of words like “ruca” (wife, chick, girlfriend), “¡orale!” (hey right on), and “carnal” (brother, close friend). There were also slang terms created for pachuco graffiti such as “plaqueazo” and/or “placa” which can be described as a list of each gang member's street moniker in graffiti form [Tranquilino & Tagg]. To pachucos and pachucas, Caló represented style, “it was considered hip and cool to spill out versos suaves (smooth words) to the chicas patas (young women) and eses (young men) while cabuliando (horsing around) after school or work” [Ramirez]. Being a native of the American Southwest, I can attest to the impact that the pachuco subculture had in my homestate of New Mexico as the the local vernacular there [Southeast New Mexico] is heavily influenced by pachuco Caló. Shortly after completing my very first graffiti throw-up in my neighborhood (Southeast Roswell c.1992), I received a phone call from a friend stating that he had heard about my new “placa.” I distinctly remember thinking to myself “Placa? Isn't that like some type of old cholo talk or something?” I can also remember my grandmother speaking fondly of the “zoot suiters” and the pachuco movement that existed in our area when she was a young girl. “Ooh those zoot suiters, they looked so nice!,” she would say as she smiled and reminisced about the halcyon days of her youth growing up in Southeast New Mexico.

It was during this era of the pachucos and “zoot suiters” (early 1940s) that Mexican American gang graffiti began to be documented in places in and around the city of Los Angeles but as I've clearly explained in the preceding paragraphs, by 1940, Mexican American gang subculture had already been well established by the young pachucos of the American Southwest. Being that the only existing documentation of early 1940's cholo graffiti is from Los Angeles, one may feel tempted to argue at this point that the territorial disputes among rivaling neighborhoods in East Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s may have been a primary motivating factor behind the advent of cholo graffiti. Nevertheless, we've already learned that neighborhood division among young pachucos was occurring in El Paso, Texas as early as 1924. I don't think that it is too far a stretch to surmise, at this point, that cholo graffiti was imported into Southern California by the early pachucos who came from El Paso, TX.

So why is it (despite these important historical and anthropological details) that the Southwest and/or El Paso is seldom, if ever, mentioned when the topic of Los Angeles or West Coast cholo graffiti is being discussed by so called “experts?” In a recent panel discussion titled “The History of L.A. Graffiti” featuring Chaz Bojorquez, an American graffiti artist from Los Angeles who is referred to as “the Godfather of cholo style”, panelists (including Chaz) fail to make any mention of El Paso and its pivotal role in the development of Los Angeles cholo graffiti. In a different interview from 2012, Los Angeles based artist Cristian "Smear" Gheorghiu says almost haphazardly, “Even before the advent of spray paint in the L.A. River, there were parts under the bridges where zoot suiters or pachucos would get sticks and tar and write their neighborhoods on the walls. Graffiti has been going on in L.A. since forever...” [Devis]. The false implication being made here is that the cholo subculture (including cholo graffiti) is indigenous to Los Angeles, California. This, in my opinion, is a blatant disregard and irreverence for the Southwestern pioneers and veteranos of the unique subculture that they [Californian graffiti artists and cholos] seem to be claiming full ownership of.  

Mike Giant is a celebrated American graffiti artist who spent a significant portion of his life living in the American Southwest. During his time as a youth living in Albuquerque, NM, Mike was exposed to cholo graffiti in his local neighborhood. As a neophyte graffiti artist, Mike absorbed many of the cholo hand-styles that were prevalent in his area. Although the local Mexican gang members were reluctant to interact, much less teach Mike about cholo graffiti, he eventually earned the respect of the local cholos and was taught the trade. Mike Giant is now a recognized authority on the subject of cholo graffiti and the various hand-styles that it consists of. When asked to compare the various hand-styles from New Mexico and Los Angeles,  Mike Giant responds “It's damn close. The Aztlan nation, from El Paso up to Albuquerque, maybe as far north as south Colorado and all the way across to Los Angeles, and then it kind of trickles up to San Francisco through El España too.” At one of Mike's recent art exhibits, a message written in a traditional cholo font reads, “...cholo style, as I see it, came from the barrios of El Paso, Texas...” Underneath this message Mike has painted a large cholo graffiti blockbuster that reads “SOUTHWEST” as if to emphasize the point of origin.

In the future, I hope that those who speak and/or write on behalf of cholo subculture (and graffiti) take the time and make the effort to learn about its rich and colorful history in the American Southwest. It wouldn't hurt to show homage once in a while to the forerunners of what is now considered to be “cholo style.” Regardless of the fact that the term “cholo” or “cholo style” was later adopted in California (in the 1960s), cholo style is the perpetuation of the pachuco style that originated in El Paso and this should not be forgotten.

sources cited:

1. Acker, Christian P. 2014. Flip the Script: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals and Typographers. Berkeley , CA: Gingko Press.

2. Morales, Donna S. and John P. Schmal. n.d. “How We Got Here: The Roads We Took To America.” The Hispanic Experience: Cultural Heritage. Retrieved July 29, 2018 (http://www.houstonculture.org/hispanic/roads.html). 

3. Howell, James C. and Joihn P. Moore. 2010. “History of Street Gangs in the United States.” Retrieved July 28, 2018 (https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/History-of-Street-Gangs.pdf).

4. Howell, James C. n.d. “First Period of Gang Emergence in the West Region: 1890s - 1930s.” The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations. Retrieved July 28, 2018 (https://books.google.com/books?id=mc5_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=The Mexican American palomilla rubel&source=bl&ots=BfTvpaZdA3&sig=Zb6cCdplsZiuxUS4-7YbHDh-Gto&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir7Jr2mcTcAhWMGDQIHSJqD944ChDoATAEeg

QIAhAB#v=onepage&q=The Mexican American palomilla rubel&f=false).

5. Villa, Viridiana. 2018. “Pachucos: A Culture of Unity.” Retrieved July 30, 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=267&v=5-K_JnhWmhw).  

6. Licón, Gerardo. 2017. “Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents.” Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents. Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-history-of-pachuco-culture).

7. Guzmán, Romeo. 2017. “Mexico's Most Celebrated Pachuco: Tin Tan.” Artbound. Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/mexicos-most-celebrated-pachuco-tin-tan).

8. Tranquilino, Marcos S. and John Tagg. 1992. “Cultural Studies, Volume 6, Issue 1.” Retrieved July 30, 2018 (https://books.google.com/books?id=EzD4fdELEioC&pg=PA566&lpg=PA566&dq

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=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKnZa8zcTcAhXfHDQIHXatDN0Q6AEwC3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=pachuco graffiti el paso&f=false).

9. Ramirez, Catherine S. 2006. “‘Saying ‘Nothin'": Pachucas and the Languages of Resistance.".” Retrieved July 27, 2018 (muse.jhu.edu/article/209989).

10. Devis, Juan. 2012. “Cristian ‘Smear’ Gheorghiu: My SoCal Art History.” Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/cristian-smear-gheorghiu-my-socal-art-history-0). 

Dancing Deities

Dancing Deities

by Damian Gomez
3/25/2018

     I had my first psychedelic experience in 1991 at the tender age of fifteen. At that age, I was still rather innocent and until then, I hadn't experimented with drugs, tobacco or even alcohol. For reasons that are still unclear to me, LSD was the first drug that I encountered in my youth. That's right, no gateway drugs for me, straight to the hard stuff! LSD, also known as acid, is the most potent hallucinogen known to man and is considered to be a powerful entheogen because of its tendency to induce mystical and spiritual experiences among users. Even a dose as small as twenty to thirty micrograms can produce mind-expanding effects. To say that my first LSD trip was profound would be an understatement. It was my first real spiritual experience and my perception of reality was forever changed. Many of the visions, thoughts, and emotions that I experienced on my first LSD trip are completely ineffable but I'll do my best to illustrate, in the following paragraphs, what I can only describe as a psychedelic theophany involving Aztec deities. In other words, a visible manifestation or appearance of Aztec deities while under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug.

     It's important for me to digress at this point and mention that I had no existing affinity for ancient Aztec history or culture at that time. In fact, at fifteen years of age, I had a very basic and elementary understanding of ancient Aztec history and culture if any at all. It is only now, after acquiring a formal education and a deeper understanding of world history am I able to make an attempt at identifying and elaborating about what I saw on that remarkable night back in 1991.

     “Are you ready?” a friend asked me in a low voice. He carefully handed me a hit of blotter acid wrapped inside a partially opened piece of tin foil. It was a tiny blue square of perforated blotter paper that had a white star printed directly in the center. Being that it was my first time ever seeing a hit of blotter acid, I studied my dose with a childlike curiosity before ingesting it. I was neither nervous nor fearful. At fifteen years of age, I was stress free and had no real responsibilities, no worries, and no plaguing anxiety. I believe this allowed me to enter into this psychedelic communion with an unclouded mind.

     The weather was warm and the skies were clear over the deserts of southeastern New Mexico on this specific night. I was with an eclectic group of close friends, a congregation of new wavers, punk rockers, and skinheads clad in flight jackets and Dr. Marten boots. Most of these friends were much older than I was so I felt privileged to be with them and was more than willing to partake in their psychedelic indoctrination. After ingesting our LSD, we all piled into a friend's house and waited for the drug to take effect. There were no parents present or authoritative figures there to ruin our acid party, in fact, we had free reign of that house for much of the night. The grinding sound of electronic industrial music became audible in the background as a peculiar energy began to generate throughout the house. It was a cool scene and I felt as if I was a part of something unique and almost esoteric. There were teenagers occupying just about every room including the living room area which is where I had situated myself. Sitting next to me was an attractive young girl who attended the same school that I did. Several glances and smiles were exchanged as we waited with anticipation, but any thoughts that I had of hooking up with her that night slowly dissolved as the LSD began to seize my mind. The high and euphoric feeling that washed over me became almost unbearable. It was at this moment that a young man walked into the center of the living room area and tossed a handful of red glitter into the air which immediately captivated my attention. The glitter seemed to float endlessly in the air as it sparkled in the most resplendent shades of red that I had ever seen. Pure wizardry! This particular event acted as the catalyst that sent me soaring directly into my mind-expanding journey at an astonishing pace. My visual hallucinations intensified to a crippling level and the reality that I once knew was being ripped to shreds before my very eyes. I soon found myself in a new and mystical reality, a kaleidoscopic world of fluctuating colors and patterns. It would be impossible for me to elaborate on my first LSD trip in its entirety because many of those experiences are indescribable and some have simply escaped my memory. For that reason, I will now focus on the most profound and memorable of those experiences, the theophany.

A photo of myself on LSD at the age of 15

     The effects of the LSD strengthened with unyielding ferocity. My speech became jumbled and inarticulate. My visual hallucinations began to take form and the living room was, at this point, almost unrecognizable. The walls, ceilings, and floors were bejeweled and pulsating with varying forms and shapes that would spin, rise and descend. I had entered into a magical and psychedelic dimension of whirling symbols, patterns, and geometric shapes. These fascinating visual hallucinations were translucent and fluctuating with vivid colors. Mars ♂ and Venus♀, the symbols used to denote male and female sex, were revealed to me as interlocking gears in motion. As if things couldn't get any more bizarre, the carpet floor suddenly gave way and a rhombus patterned grid rose from beneath the ground. This grid resembled a small stage or platform made from stone that had large rhombus shaped holes on the surface. Before I could get up and run for the door, a band of Aztec deities slowly ascended in a synchronized fashion from the hollow rhombus shaped portions of the stage. Short in stature, each deity was clothed in ancient Aztec garb and was adorned with charms, pendents, armlets, bracelets, and leg bracelets. To my delight, some deities were dancing while others were playing musical instruments. Despite these bodily figures being very life-like, they appeared translucent while fluctuating with a multitude of neon colors. Continually ascending and descending in synchronization from the rhombus shaped holes atop the stage, it appeared to be some type of shamanic display or show with me being the sole audience and intended recipient of any information that was being communicated. Before long, I had become oblivious to anything or anyone else occupying the living room as I was completely enchanted with this phenomenal and mystical event that I was experiencing. I continued to watch the deities dance for what seemed like several minutes until they departed in the same mystical way that they appeared. My acid trip continued on through night and I had many more memorable experiences but my theophanic experience was the most profound and memorable of them all. So absorbed was I by this singular event that I am able to evoke detail memories of my experience twenty seven years later.

     I'd like to think that I am perspicacious enough to interpret my profound psychedelic experience but I must admit, it's been a tricky and delicate process. I've had lots of time to contemplate whether this was indeed a theophanic experience or if it was nothing more than a drug induced hallucination. As you may already know, Aztec religion and mythology consists of a pantheon of gods and goddesses. None of which I am able to decisively identify as being present during my supposed theophanic experience. They could have been ancient Aztec spirits or perhaps what I was experiencing was an Aztec ancestral visitation. It would then, of course, be imperative to take my genetics into consideration. In addition, there was no interaction between myself and the dancing deities. At no point did anyone of them step down from the stage and approach me. In retrospect, this theophany lasted for a brief moment within a bizarre and freakish night that seemed to last an eternity. I now wholeheartedly believe that my encounter, theophanic or not, may be the only true religious and/or mystical event that I've ever experienced. 

watercolor painting depicting Aztec deity Xochipilli or "The Prince of Flowers"